South Korea to vote on Park impeachment next week

Seoul, Dec 2 (IANS) Three main opposition parties of South Korea agreed on Friday to vote on a bill to impeach embattled President Park Geun-hye next week.

Leaders of the biggest opposition Minjoo Party, along with People’s Party and the Justice Party met to discuss Park’s removal after the president asked the parliamentary court to decide on her resignation.

The opposition agreed to put forward the impeachment motion on Friday and vote on the bill next Friday, Xinhua news reported.

The impeachment proposal requires 50 per cent support of the 300-seat National Assembly. Passing the motion must have the two-thirds ayes from the unicameral assembly.

As there are 172 opposition and independent lawmakers, at least 30 legislators from the ruling Saenuri Party must be secured to pass the impeachment motion through the parliament.

As many as 50 lawmakers of the anti-Park faction in the ruling party had agreed to impeach President Park, but the figure reportedly declined to an undefined number after Park’s national address on Tuesday.

During her third public speech since the scandal involving herself emerged in October, Park said she would step down from the presidency if the ruling and opposition parties find a way to ensure a stable transfer.

After the presidential speech, the pro-Park faction of the ruling party sought to stop impeachment efforts, while opposition parties denounced the address as a ploy to block impeachment.

Opposition lawmakers were originally supposed to put forward the impeachment motion on Thursday and vote on it on Friday.